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State Of The Union: A Surprise Argument For Separate Party Seating

﻿You may be surprised to learn that my wife is not as political as I am. When I bend her ear too much or gripe about conservatives too much, she lets me know when I’m done.

Thus it was that after Obama’s State Of The Union (SOTU) speech, while I and the commentators and the politicians assessed the change to ‘prom night’ seating as neutral to positive, my wife voiced an objection. Following is a paraphrase of the conversation.

“I preferred it when the parties all sat as groups.”

“Why,” said I.

“Because when they’re all seated mixed up like this, I can’t tell who’s in favor of what.”

“What do you mean?”

“When the Republicans all stand up and applaud together and the Democrats don’t, I know that’s a Republican thing. When the Democrats all stand up and applaud together and the Republicans don’t, I know it’s a Democratic thing. When they all stand and applaud together, I know it’s a bipartisan thing. So when the parties are seated separately and I listen to the president’s speech, it helps me know which party I agree with.”

Huh. Hm. I have to give my wife credit. I don’t think that this is an assessment you’ll get from any commentator anywhere else, but it is food for thought. And it may be that all of us who are interested in politics all the time may never have thought of such a thing, but from her point of view, I can see how it makes sense.

This may be a perfect example of a way that average people judge politics which would never even vaguely occur to those of us who follow it all the time.

I am proud to present this as possibly the first Thinkwing Radio political comment exclusive.

About Thinkwing Radio

Mike Honig is originally from Brooklyn, New York. He moved to Houston in September of 1977 and has been there ever since. Mike's interests are politics, history, science, science fiction (and reading generally), technology, and almost anything else. Mike has knowledge and experience in many diverse fields, sometimes from having worked in them, and sometimes from extensive reading or discussion about them. Mike's general knowledge makes him a favorite partner in Trivial Pursuit. He likes to say that about most things, he knows enough to be dangerous. Humility is a work-in-progress.